Commentary: THE TRAIN TO SWEDEN (Satis Shroff)

Commentary:  The Train to Sweden (Satis Shroff)

Come Monday and Jean-Claude Junker wants to talk with the Ministers of Internal Affairs of 28 European states, and debate how to make them share the 120,000 refugees. A concept to distribute 40,000 people is already there.

 German Chancellor Merkel’s government desires to distribute the refugees throughout Europe, to ease the pressure off Hungary, Greece and Italy where most of the asylum-seekers are located. Whether the people from Syria, Eritrea and Iraq, who have bigger chances of being accepted as asylum-seekers, also wish to be scattered as planned by Brussels is another question.

The welcome-culture on the part of the German people and leaders was inspiring and worth emulating but the refugees had another country in mind, namely Sweden; and the road to Sweden was via Germany and Denmark. The train-route from Germany to Denmark was stopped. Even the autobahn E24 in Jütland was closed in both directions, because a lot of refugees walked along the autobahn to Sweden. Translators used by the Danish police didn’t were of no avail. The Danish, nevertheless, picked up dehydrated children from a train to help them, which was a decent gesture.

Around 800 refugees came from Germany to Rödby, and at least 200 ran away when the Danish police tried to register them with fingerprints. The refugees fled because they didn’t want to be registered in Rödby (Denmark) but in Malmö (Sweden) for if they’d let themselves be registered in Denmark, why, they’d have been obliged to be interned in the same country according to the Dublin Accord.

Denmark has since then been sending the refugees to Germany—instead of letting them join their relatives and friends in Sweden. Denmark’s stance was: if you don’t want to apply for asylum then you’re illegally trespassing our territory. The rightist Danish government has declared in the global media: ‘War refugees are not welcome in Denmark.’ The social welfare has been reduced to 50%.

The march of hope that began in Budapest and ended in Germany, which has played a central role by opening its doors to the refugees in their odyssey through Europe. In Austria 71 people suffocated to death in a driverless fridge-truck. They’d come from the Greek isle of Kos where they were offered no shelter and food. The journey of suffering began again when they crossed Athens and Saloniki, reached Macedonia, Serbia and eventually Hungary.  Here was humanity underway but they weren’t welcome in Fortress Europe.

In the end, it was the refugees themselves who gained power with a marathon Gandhian march, despite police repression in different states along the way to their cherished destination: Sweden.

For prosperous Germany, the 800,000 asylum-seekers are not a problem but a chance. Chancellor Merkel said: ‘The new arrivals should learn German fast and start working just as fast. People who come due to economic reasons can’t remain in Germany. A country which has welcomed so many people is obliged to make its own rules and regulations clear, and will not tolerate everything.

Frau Merkel wants to consequently follow up attacks and hatred against foreigners. According to her this will be the reality of the 21^st century and emphasized that Germany want to play the role of a world power but to set an example in the comity of nations. ‘If we face the challenge courageously, straight forward and creatively then we can only win’ was the tenet.

Ever heard of German Angst? It seems to be a thing of the past. Refugees are being greeted with gaudy balloons and hearty applause in German railway stations. Jean-Claude Juncker’s timely admonition in Strasbourg (France) that we shouldn’t forget Europe’s recent history should make Europeans think instead of indulging in stereotyping foreigners and refusing refugees from other parts of the world. He meant the stream of refugees of the 20^th century during which two World Wars had to be experienced, in addition to the Soviet occupation, as well as the former warring states of Yugoslavia. All this precipitated countless emigrations from Europe to others safer countries throughout the world.

 It might be mentioned that the homes of asylum-seekers have been burning mysteriously of late, not only in the former East German cities but also in the west. The German newspapers are full of angst that the country’s standard of living might begin to rock as more and more refugees, especially Muslims, apply for asylum. The German chamber of industry and commerce is, however, delighted that so many qualified young migrants are coming to work and learn and thereby help the country to be even richer economically. Whereas the USA, Australia and New Zealand have clear immigration rules and regulations is concerned, the European bureaucrats in Brussels are divided and are having difficulties in reaching a compromise and effective general European migration and asylum laws.

The German federal government wants to invest another 6 billion euros to deal with the increasing number of refugees. In the meantime, the Länder are demanding more financial assistance from the federal government. The finance minister Schäuble is expecting a sizeable billion surplus which he intend to use for next year.

Whereas in Saxony’s Heidenau a brown mob attacked a house which was meant for the asylum-seekers and a similar house was put on fire in Rottenburg (near Tübingen), in Bavaria’s capital Munich Germans welcome refugees coming by train from Hungard and Austria with enthusiasm. Active welcome culture has developed in Bavaria nd Freiburg (Baden-Württemberg), even though Hungary and other former East Bloc states don’t share the German enthusiasm. Germany, however, says the refugee problem can be solved only with the help of Europe. It is hoped that the 28 states of the EU will work together to find appropriate solutions and not against each other. It’s time Frau Merkel took the lead as the economically strongest country in Europe.

 Poland, which has welcomed Ukranian war refugees recently, wants to show cooperation towards the EU.

A day after the blockade of the train and flood of refugees on their way to Sweden, the Danish police allowed them to leave for Sweden. But the ferry to Sweden didn’t take the trains filled with refugees.